Robert Gibbings

Famous Illustrator-Author Goes to Samoa

Wellington, Oct. 6.

BIG, bearded, jovial Robert Gibbings, artist, author, and sculptor, called in at Wellington (NZ) the other day en route to Samoa, where, under contract to his English publishers, he will prepare material for still another book. Irish born, he has all the wit of his race, the industry of the Englishman, and the flair for living of the Continental. Fifteen years have passed since he went to Tahiti, and there compiled his “laorana,” a journal illustrated by his own wood cuts, now in much demand among col lectors.

Robert Gibbings established the “Golden Cockerel” Press, famous for its rare editions. He has illustrated more than 40 books: and in recent years has been engaged in floating down several of the English rivers. Books on the Thames, Wye. and Lee, he told me, have sold more than 130,000 copies. “The British public like to get right away from the war. There is nothing about war in my books.”

He will spend the best part of a year in Samoa; then he will return to New Zealand to write his material. Reference libraries for such a work are essential.

Mr. Gibbings was the first artist to secure pencil drawings under the sea.

Anyone acquainted with his Pacific books will appreciate the quality and the authenticity of his woodcuts of the multi shaped and gaily-hued fish that fre auent Polynesian waters. —ERIC RAMS

Den.